I pretty much never open limp, with the occasional exception of being in very early position, usually UTG, at a full ring table. This is particularly true in tournaments, because there is so much value in stealing the pot pre-flop and stacks aren’t generally deep enough to play a wide … Read full post
My latest poker article, Calling for Information, is now appearing in the February issue of 2+2 Magazine. It’s a relatively low-level strategy article, compared to some of the stuff I’ve published, but even more advanced players may find parts of it useful.
… Read full postMy central argument is that if
Shantel was a middle-aged black woman who for some reason developed a sort of matronly affection for me. She always told me that I was her favorite person to work with, but I don’t know why and the feeling wasn’t mutual. I didn’t dislike her, but she was a lot … Read full post
I like this line a lot in this spot, but not against the table fish:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($2000)
CO ($1850)
Button ($1329)
SB ($8366)
Hero (BB) ($2197)
UTG ($2274)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Q
, … Read full post
I’ll get you off of it eventually…
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
SB ($4886.05)
BB ($300)
UTG ($600)
Hero (MP) ($1311.80)
CO ($1318.60)
Button ($1711.10)
Preflop: Hero is MP with 10
, A
1 fold, Hero raises to $21… Read full post
Not my best double barrel ever, but the A is a good bluff card on the river. That makes it a good time for him to call down light, which makes it a good time for me to value bet light, which makes it a better bluff card in the … Read full post
A few days ago I posted a hand where we were very deep and I feared I may have overplayed a small set/full house. Once again I was deep here against a pretty good player. Were I to fire a third barrel, I’d be showing a ton of strength, so … Read full post
Since I just posted a bunch of whines, here’s a brag. The SB was the table fish, the BB is a very tough and aggressive opponent. I could just 4-bet pre-flop but I think he’d find a way to own me. I decided I was just going to play my … Read full post
Weeks ago, I got a comment that I promised to answer in greater depth. Well, I’ve finally gotten around to it. Here was the question:
… Read full postI read with interest the blog in which you say that you use AQ as a four / five bet semi bluff.
With what hands
These are all from tonight. Fair warning: this is pretty much a whine post, but I’m trying to include at least some insight into how precisely running bad can lead to playing bad (aside from the obvious straight-up frustration/tilt). This is the worst one of the night, one of two … Read full post
Both of these hands are against a real 3-betting fiend. He’s ridiculously loose and aggressive pre-flop, especially when he has position. Even though I think he’s taken it to the point of exploitability, it’s still a tough and high-variance playstyle to combat. There are a lot of adjustments you need … Read full post
This is a pretty specific situation nearly 400 BB’s deep against a phenomenal player (CardRunner’s instructor/FTP red pro Eric “P3achy_Keen” Liu
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (9 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
BB ($1945)
UTG ($1015)
UTG+1 ($4483)
MP1 ($991.45)
MP2 ($3100)
MP3 ($1609.25)
Hero (CO) ($3782.50)… Read full post
As of today, I am in the red for the year. Obviously not a big deal just two weeks in, but it’s annoying. It has a lot to do with my pocket Aces never winning the damn pot. In fact, I am in the red for the year with … Read full post
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (9 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP2 ($723.55)
MP3 ($1002)
CO ($928)
Button ($995)
SB ($1000)
BB ($1717.50)
UTG ($585)
Hero (UTG+1) ($1015)
MP1 ($1239)
Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with A, A
1 fold, Hero raises to $30, 6 … Read full post
There were nine 25/50 cap games going tonight! And I was playing all of them. This is against a guy who can’t read hands very well and never believes me:
Full Tilt $1500.00 Cap No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (4 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
Button ($6815)
Hero (SB) … Read full post
Of course I couldn’t actually see my opponent’s hold cards, but it sure looks like I could when you see the results:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
UTG ($3706.55)
MP ($1875)
Hero (CO) ($3852)
Button ($4474)
SB ($1325)
BB ($2872.95)
Preflop… Read full post
Until recently, I didn’t play HSNL very often on Poker Stars and consequently did not remember anything about this player. However, I had a note on him indicating that I had previously observed him fail to make a thin value bet. Thus, I felt comfortable calling him down here:
PokerStars … Read full post
At least I wish I did…
PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP ($2292)
CO ($2000)
Button ($2000)
SB ($828.85)
BB ($2773)
Hero (UTG) ($1904)
Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, A
Hero raises to $60, MP raises to $200… Read full post
Resolution One: Keep Grinding NLHE Cash Games
This is my bread and butter game, and even if I don’t do anything to improve, just maintaining my current winrate and putting in hours will be very valuable to me. Of course I do want to get better, but my general focus … Read full post
Sorry I haven’t had the opportunity to put together my 2009 Resolutions yet- they’ll be coming soon…
The Poker Stars Sunday Million (which now guarantees a $1.5 million prizepool and routinely clears that by a healthy margin) is comparable to the WSOP main event for its ability to entice atrocious … Read full post
Having already posted an analysis of last year’s resolutions (One, Two, and Three), I’ll turn now to some year-end miscellany:
Largest Pot Won
Though I played as high as 50/100 last year, my biggest win was in a recent 10/20 heads up game. It’s … Read full post
At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008. I’ve already posted about my resolutions to Focus on Short-Handed No-Limit Hold ‘Em Cash Games and to Keep Getting Better at Other … Read full post
At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008. Yesterday, I posted about my resolution to Focus on Short-Handed No-Limit Hold ‘Em Cash Games.
Resolution 2: Keep Getting Better at … Read full post
At the beginning of last year, I set some poker resolutions and goals for myself. It’s time now to see how I’ve fared during the course of 2008.
Resolution 1: Focus on Short-Handed NLHE Cash Games
I pretty well kicked the tournament habit, but my focus wasn’t exclusively on short-handed … Read full post
While visiting family in Maryland, I came across an article in the Baltimore Sun that I find funny on multiple levels. The article, entitled “New Meters Paying Off”, is about how a switch to centralized parking meters that enable customers to pay with credit cards has generated a big increase … Read full post
Our manager was in the store mornings almost every day, but even then he was usually in his office. Store policy was enforced on employees not through regular supervision but by the threat of surprise inspection by Carl, the manager at another branch owned by same person who owned our … Read full post
It never ceases to amuse me when my mistakes make me money. Here I meant to bet $99 on the river and accidentally bet $9. The result was inducing a huge check-raise bluff from a hand that almost certainly would have folded to my intended bet:
Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 … Read full post
This is from my laptop, so sorry for the lack of converted HH. It was from a 5/10 deep game, people’s stack sizes are in parentheses after their names:
UTG ($2000) raises to $40, UTG+1 ($2000) re-raises to $120, CO folds, I ($2000) call the $120 cold, SB folds, BB … Read full post
Absolutely murdered this guy at 10/20 heads up this afternoon. He was decent but overly loose and aggressive and did not adapt well to playing super-deep. As you’ll see, we had a very aggressive pre-flop dynamic going on, but it occurred almost exclusively on my button. The deeper we got, … Read full post
I play FTP’s 200 BB deep stack games almost exclusively. That’s in part because I prefer deeper stacked play but also because the higher stakes regular games are infested with people who buy in for the minimum of 20 BB (the minimum on the deep tables is 50BB). There are … Read full post
Gah how does this not value bet the river?!?!
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
BB: $3,800
Hero (UTG): $4,340
MP: $4,151
CO: $2,000
BTN: $4,026
SB: $3,853
Pre-Flop: A
8 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $70, 2 … Read full post
This was an interesting one:
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
Hero (BB): $1,050
UTG: $2,182
BTN: $1,186
SB: $1,018.90
Pre-Flop: T A
dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, BTN raises to $20, SB folds, Hero raises to $75, … Read full post
The frustrating thing about monster hands like Quads is that they rarely get paid off, since it’s so hard for your opponents to make second best hands. But I managed to win two stacks with quads tonight:
Full Tilt Poker, $10/$20 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand … Read full post
I guess this is fairly standard and notable mostly for the sum of money involved:
Full Tilt Poker, $25/$50 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
CO: $12,483
BTN: $16,645
Hero (SB): $10,000
BB: $17,688
UTG: $5,000
MP: $9,875
Pre-Flop: 9
8 dealt to Hero (SB)… Read full post
Villain was some random I’d never seen before and knew nothing about:
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
UTG: $534.20
MP: $2,144.40
CO: $2,000
Hero (BTN): $2,000
SB: $2,215
BB: $1,015
Pre-Flop: J J dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, MP … Read full post
There are some hands that I almost always 3-bet (AA, KK) and some that I almost never 3-bet (72, 95), but in the middle are a whole bunch of hands and spots that are at least kind of close. What if you are 100BB deep, a tight-aggressive player opens UTG, … Read full post
Last night was my biggest to date playing exclusively cash games, topped only by the WSOP (obviously- not sure that even counts since it took two weeks) and my win in the UB 200K last November. Funny thing is while I wasn’t playing badly I don’t think I was playing … Read full post
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
BB: $1,154
Hero (UTG): $2,707
BTN: $1,072
SB: $5,637.50
Pre-Flop: 2 2 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $35, BTN folds, SB calls $30, BB folds
Flop: ($80) 5 8
Q (2 Players)… Read full post
In light of my recent article on Creative Bet Sizing, here are two river check-raise overbets I made against the same player. The situations are similar: I have an unlikely monster hand and my opponent has a well-defined strong-but-not-too-strong hand. By “well-defined”, I mean that he probably realizes that … Read full post
Bear wasn’t an employee, but he was one of our most colorful regular customers. I mean that both figuratively and literally: he was a hulking biker dude covered in ink from head to toe. Rose bushes encircled naked women on his arms, and his shiny bald head was decorated with … Read full post
This is an honest-to-God quote from the City of Boston’s official calendar:
Join the Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC) to kick off the start of the city’s holiday season! The singers will join Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino for one of the city’s most cherished events- the lighting of Boston’s … Read full post
My latest poker strategy article, Creative Bet Sizing, is now appearing in the December edition of 2+2 Internet Magazine. The article examines underbetting and overbetting as examples of how to add unconventional plays into your arsenal. Here’s an excerpt from the section on overbetting the pot:
… Read full postBig bets are
The cheating scandal at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker made national news yesterday with an article in the Washington Post and a segment on CBS’ 60 Minutes. There was a lot of doom and gloom predictions about what this coverage would look like, but in the end I thought … Read full post
There was a great 25/50 deep game going last night, with two really big fish sitting on $10,000+ each. I had to compete with three very good players for them, but it was still a great spot. Unfortunately, I missed a pretty important bluff against one of the sharks.
The … Read full post
I hope all the Americans and anyone else who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a nice time. I’d like to express my gratitude to everyone who reads and/or comments here at thinkingpoker. It’s enormously gratifying to know that there are people out there interested in what I have to say about … Read full post
Gary was a tough guy to work with. He had some mental disabilities that prevented him from engaging fully in the idle banter that generally passed between co-workers. Most of the time he did his job just as well as if not better than the other employees, but his strength … Read full post
The Boston Herald ran an article this morning about the Boston Debate League and one of its member schools which was nearly closed by the school district:
… Read full postThe debate team at the Academy of Public Service sailed into the “elite eight” last year at the national championships in Chicago.
Now,
Mark was our youngest employee. I knew him first as a customer who came in nearly every day and talked about how badly he wanted to work in the store. Sure enough, he started work on his sixteenth birthday.
The 7-11 was just a stepping stone for Mark, though. His … Read full post
I thought this new layout would kill two birds with one stone, both giving the blog a fresh look and fixing the font issue I’ve had for the last few days. Apparently only the former was successful. Sorry, I’m still working on getting rid of this ugly font. In the … Read full post
Eugene asked a great question about my recent post, A Random Call, which reminded me that I’d meant to post this hand as well. It happened not long after I snapped off a 2x pot river bluff with top pair, weak kicker. This was against the same opponent but … Read full post
I think the river 3-bet bluff is one of the sexiest plays in poker. Precisely because it’s so hard to pull off, it’s something I rarely attempt. But today I managed a good one:
Full Tilt Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
SB: … Read full post
I am a strong advocate of exploitive poker strategy. That is, I believe that you ought to tailor your play to exploit specific mistakes that you believe your opponents will make, even if this means that you are yourself open to exploitation. By definition, the more skillful player will do … Read full post
Thought I’m not playing the FTOPS events as compulsively as I have in the past, I am playing my favorites. So far, though, it hasn’t been too interesting and I decided to spare you the litany of bad beats. Last night I had my first … Read full post
It’s been nearly two years since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act snuck its way through Congress as a rider on a port security bill. The UIGEA criminalized not the gambling itself but the facilitation of financial transactions for the purpose of gambling online. In other words, you could play, … Read full post
I put in one of my longest online poker sessions ever yesterday, starting at 2PM to play the $256 FTOPS 6-max knockout event (ran like ass but as you’ll see I’ve got no room to complain), then making a deep run in the Stars Sunday Million that kept me up … Read full post
I was feeling so on top of my game the other day. I was just really alert and creative, picking up on a ton of spots where I could steal pots if I applied enough pressure in the right way. This was the best one. Unless they have exactly Khxh, … Read full post
I spent the better part of last week in Sedona, Arizona, which is a beautiful part of the American Southwest featuring tremendous red rock structures. Unfortunately, someone decided that these red rock formations have somehow created spiritual vortexes (and yes that is the correct pluralization, not vortices, I checked):
… Read full post“In
Norman was in his early thirties when I worked with him, and in retrospect a giant fuck-up. He was a lot of fun to work with, though. When we were bored, which of course was quite often, Norman would sporadically break into a verse or two of a self-invented ditty. … Read full post
I wrote this yesterday, about 12 hours after McCain’s concession, but didn’t get a chance to post it until today.
I can’t bring myself to get as excited as I feel I should be about Obama’s victory. I was pulling for him- he was in fact the first major party … Read full post
Bear wasn’t an employee, but he was one of our most colorful regular customers. I mean that both figuratively and literally: he was a hulking biker dude covered in ink from head to toe. Rose bushes entangled themselves with naked women on his arms, and his shiny bald head was … Read full post
Sorry at the airport on laptop so no easy access to HH but playing 10/20 HU guy opens for 60 on the button, I make it 211 with AKo, he makes it 533, I shove for a little over 2K, he CALLS with 42s. Naturally I am drawing dead when … Read full post
OK I paired the river but 8-high would have been good anyway:
Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter
MP: $600
CO: $1,712.40
Hero (BTN): $1,495
SB: $1,992.90
BB: $318
UTG: $1,206
Pre-Flop: 7 8 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, MP … Read full post
Poker buddy, former student, and regular reader Diego (rvrmonkey ronfezbuddy for those who have been owned by him at the tables) welcomed his second child, Dahlia, into the world yesterday. She’s cute and all, but this pretty much dooms any chance of getting Diego into an NYC home game … Read full post
Had a decent morning at the tables but the real brag is for the Boston Debate League, which was awarded today a $50,000 grant from the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation. The grant will support the BDL’s work with debate programs in the Boston Public Schools over the next … Read full post
My latest poker article, Knowing is (Only) Half the Battle, is now appearing in the November issue of the Two Plus Two Internet Magazine. The article focuses on the way different betting lines taken in an otherwise identical hand can change which player has the edge:
“In other … Read full post
Hatty was about my age, maybe a year older, but very much a teenager. The 7-11 where we worked was in Baltimore County, but it was just over the city line on Edmondson Avenue. Thus, it was quite accessible by public bus, which was how Hatty got there for her … Read full post